This post and the comments accompanying it, are pretty demonstrative of the state of politics today.

“Your side is filled with hate-filled lunatics!”

“No, your side is!”

“You guys are just a bunch of conspiratorial nutjobs!”

“No, YOU GUYS are conspiratorial nutjobs!”

And the few voices of reason get drowned out in the storm. You wanna know why half the country doesn’t vote? Because they can’t stand immature childish behavior like this, that’s why! Because in the end, you’re watching a bunch of otherwise sane, rational people devolve into insanity saying that their rich, white guy from a wealthy family whose lifetime accomplishments haven’t lived up to their potential is better than the other.

Well, whatever. I’m going to go take a nap. Wake me up when the grownups start talking about politics. Or are at least making fun of the whole thing.

“My father taught me many things here, taught me in this room. He taught me, ‘Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.’”
– Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) in The Godfather, Part II

James Joyner points out something I thought was pretty odd about Kerry’s speech last night, too.

Plus, while I get that he’s apparently basing his entire campaign on the facts that 1) he went to Vietnam and 2) he’s not George W. Bush, I’m constantly bemused that a man who has been in the public spotlight for thirty-odd years wants us to think that he left Vietnam and suddenly emerged last week wanting to be president. His entire political career has been elided for the purposes of the campaign. I honestly can’t recall a presidential nominee who didn’t point to any achievements from his adult career.

Probably this is because he’s been a lackluster Senator–he rarely introduced legislation and didn’t even co-sponsor a lot. He has done lots of committee work, though. And the rest of his career he probably wants to sweep under the rug a bit–his history as an anti-war protester, for one. His service as Lt. Governor to Mike Dukakis is probably something he doesn’t want to hightlight, either.

Bush/Cheney - 42%
Kerry/Edwards - 35%
Badnarik/Campagna - 2%
Stay at home and play Playstation - 11%
Write in “Alex Murphy” - 10%

Bush/Cheney got an unexpected boost in my internal election poll as a result of this essay which encapsulates a lot of my feelings about the President.

Kerry/Edwards get a drop because of that ridiculously self-serving infomercial/biography about Kerry at the Convention. Also, I just finished reading the transcript of his speech. “I was born in the West Wing”? Ugh.

The newcomer to the poll is the write-in candidate Alex Murphy, whose unofficial candicacy gets wholehearted support from me. His platform? “Serve the public trust, protect the innocent and uphold the law.” How can you argue with that? Sure, he can’t do anything against an executive officer of OCP, but that’s what a good attorney general is for. You know, someone with a good nose for bullshit who won’t back down to anyone. I suggest Vincent LaGuardia Gambini or Daniel Kaffee for the job.

Previous Polls
7/16/2004
7/9/2004

Catching up on news I missed while taking the bar, I stumbled across this wonderful essay by Brian Doherty at Reason.

While attempting to perfect the entire world, or even an entire nation, is inherently futile and impossible, attempting to make our own lives, and those of our immediate family, friends, and block, successful and peaceful and cared for is something within the realm of possibility. And it’s a path whose rewards (and, of course, failures) would be real and immediate and fulfilling. But it is, make no mistake, harder than voting, or getting out the vote, or attending political conventions, or writing about them.

That’s just a taste. Read the whole thing.

Francis Crick, one of the most brilliant biologists of the 20th Century, passed away yesterday.

Crick was internationally praised by those familiar with his groundbreaking contributions to science.

“Francis Crick made an enormous contribution to science and his discoveries helped to usher in a golden age of molecular biology,” the president of Britain’s Royal Society, Lord May of Oxford, said in a statement issued in London. “We are all greatly saddened to learn of the death of Francis Crick.”

Although best known for the discovery of the double helix, Crick was credited with other significant discoveries, notably the relationship between DNA and genetic coding.

Crick and Vernon Ingram, known as the “father of molecular medicine,” discovered the function of the genetic material in determining the specificity of proteins.

Born in Northampton, England, on June 8, 1916, Crick showed an early curiosity for science. He studied at University College in London and at Cambridge University.

Crick was lauded widely last year during commemorations for the 50th anniversary of the discovery of the double helix.

During the celebrations last April, a plaque was unveiled at The Eagle pub in Cambridge, where on the day they made their discovery, Watson and Crick drank a beer and told bemused regulars that they had found “the secret of life.”

Watson added that, “until his death, Francis was the person with whom I could most easily talk about ideas. He will be sorely missed.”

I was going to be a good blogger. Really, I was. I was gonna be a good boy and watch Kerry’s speech–maybe even live blog it! I was really, honestly, truly all set.

But, you know how it goes. I flipped on the TV, and, well, you know…. RoboCop was on HBO. Now, c’mon–am I gonna watch some politician talk or watch a cyborg blow up bad guys in Old Detroit while at the same time exploring his own lost humanity?

I think the choice is obvious, really. Besides, I’m sure Alex Murphy fought in Vietnam, too…

“If anything in this life is certain, if history has taught us anything, it is that you can kill anyone.”
– Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) in The Godfather Part II

Rumor has it that Jerry Falwell will be giving the invocation at the GOP convention. I haven’t seen this corroborated yet. However, I sincerely doubt he will–the GOP can’t possibly be that stupid, because Falwell’s presence will overshadown a lot of the Convention. And not in a good way for the GOP, either.

What kind of thinking produces the capture of a high-level al-Qaeda member as ominous and foreboding rather than something to be celebrated? Given the timetables of American elections–from the quadrennial presidential elections to the biannual Congressional elections, it is terrifically easy to say that when a politician does something, it’s timed to some part of the election process. Whether it’s the conventions or the primaries or what have you.

Now, I personally don’t see anything particularly ominous about Bush riding the Pakistanis hard for al-Qaeda captures before November. Sure, no doubt it’s politically minded–that’s the nature of the beast. But it’s also a good thing that we’re putting more pressure on for leading members of al-Qaeda, isn’t it? And seeing how this Administration, for all its faults, is sincere about fighting terrorism, and appears to be equally sincere in seeing John Kerry as unserious about terrorism, they probably would rather their man won.

I honestly don’t see how you can see increased pressure to capture or kill terrorists is a bad thing unless you’d rather see terrorists roaming alive and free than Bush as President. There are lots of reasons not to vote for Bush–even on War against Terror grounds. But this is not one of them.